CBI files final report in anti-Sikh riots case against Tytler (Lead)

New Delhi, March 28 (IANS) The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Saturday filed in a court its final investigation report in a case of the 1984 anti-Sikh riot in which former central minister and Congress leader Jagdish Tytler is an accused. The agency submitted the report in a sealed envelope before Metropolitan Magistrate Ram Lal Meena. The court will consider the report April 2.

While the CBI refused to comment on the contents of the report, the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alleged that Tytler was given a clean chit.

During the proceedings in the court, the CBI said it had completed its investigation and submitted the report before the court.

It filed the report after examining Jasbir Singh, a California-based witness it had earlier declared non-traceable.

Singh had in an affidavit before the Nanavati Commission, which inquired into the anti-Sikh riots, stated that on Nov 3, 1984, he had overheard Tytler commenting on the killing of Sikhs in his constituency.

The national capital witnessed large-scale violence against Sikhs following the assassination of then prime minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards in October 1984.

Tytler, who is a Congress candidate from the Delhi North-West constituency, was among the three prominent Congress leaders accused of having incited mobs. Two other leaders named were Sajjan Kumar and late H.K.L. Bhagat.

The timing of the clean chit - just before the general elections - may raise questions about government interference.

Asked about the speculation that Tytler was given a clean chit, a CBI spokesperson told IANS: “We have submitted the report into the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case in a sealed cover. Neither the court nor I know anything about what is in the report.”

However, BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said: “The CBI has continued the Congress’s political agenda by giving a clean chit to Tytler. We have not seen such a misuse of CBI till date.

“If Mayawati is with them, then a clean chit to Mayawati. If Mulyaam Singh Yadav is with them, then a clean chit to him. And now a clean chit to Jagdish Tytler. The CBI is now ‘Congress Bureau of Investigation’. We reject the CBI’s clean chit. Now the people will decide,” Javadekar told reporters here.